Staff Reporter
DOIMUKH, 15 Sep: A 13-year-old Class 7 student of the Government Middle School (GMS) in Mani here in Papum Pare district died by suicide on Sunday evening.
The deceased, Techi Gunia (13), from Lower Gai village in Sagalee, was found dead inside the bathroom of the school’s hostel.
The deceased’s brother has lodged an FIR at the Doimukh police station, alleging foul play. He said that the deceased was likely a victim of mental and physical harassment.
Officials of the GMS informed the police about the incident at around 7:30 pm, Doimukh SDPO Radhe Obing said on Monday.
An unnatural death case has been registered at the Doimukh police station, and further investigation in the case is underway, the SDPO said.
The FIR read, “Despite being duty-bound, the hostel warden and authorities failed to promptly inform and withheld crucial information about the incident, thereby causing obstruction in timely help and evidence preservation. Their conduct amounts to criminal negligence and abetment.”
A forensic team from PTC Banderdewa reached the place of occurrence, said Investigation Officer G Yao.
According to Techi Yall, elder sister of the deceased, her brother called her on Friday evening, asking her to take him from the hostel as the following day was a second Saturday, but later it was learnt that Class 6 and 7 students were not allowed to go home as their examination was underway.
Later, on Sunday afternoon, at around 3:30 pm, the sister (Techi Yall) reached the school, bringing a writing board for her brother (deceased) and to see him, but she came to learn that her brother was not seen since morning.
Yall informed that she then called the warden about her missing brother, following which a search was carried out.
Later, at around 7:30 pm, a call was received from the hostel warden Tarh Talam, informing about the incident.
Doimukh Block Education Officer Gollo Tachang, along with cluster resource coordinators Teli Vickie Camdir and Nabam Kagung took stock of the situation. A representative of the Papum Pare unit of the Child Welfare Committee also visited the school.
The police recorded the statement of the school’s Headmaster Nabam Rikam, along with that of the warden and students on Sunday and Monday afternoon.
Postmortem was yet to be done at the time of filing this report. (With PTI input)
